Loney on a Line

James Loney avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $4.875 million contract on Friday.  Loney's salary is kept low by his lack of power.  What he does do extremely well is put the ball in play on a line.  In 2010 James but the 12th most balls into play as line drives.

Most lines drives, 2010

Hitter	Line Drives	WOBA
Placido Polanco	126	0.657
Robinson Cano	124	0.739
Ichiro Suzuki	123	0.667
Carlos Gonzalez	120	0.802
Austin Jackson	119	0.739
Adrian Beltre	117	0.752
Joe Mauer	115	0.721
Michael Young	115	0.717
Vladimir Guerrero	111	0.742
Chone Figgins	110	0.641
Jose Lopez	110	0.696
James Loney	109	0.745
Daric Barton	108	0.738
Miguel Tejada	108	0.683
Raul Ibanez	107	0.730
Shane Victorino	106	0.725
Marco Scutaro	105	0.735
Jhonny Peralta	105	0.665
Albert Pujols	105	0.880
Aubrey Huff	104	0.763
Adrian Gonzalez	103	0.748
Matt Holliday	102	0.854
Denard Span	101	0.665
Billy Butler	100	0.844

Note that James wOBA on line drives ranks eighth among these players, which puts him on the dividing line between the true power hitters (Pujols, Butler, the Adrians) and the singles hitters (Figgins, Young Suzuki).  Loney's high line drive rates are a constant, as at least 22% of his balls in play went for liners in each of the last three seasons.

Part of that comes from pitchers preferring Loney line drives to home runs.  He hits line drives on the outside half of the plate:

James Loney line drives, 2008-2010He hits home runs on the inside half of the plate, and even off the inside corner:

James Loney home runs, 2008-2010So opponents pitch to his line drive strength, not his home run strength:

James Loney, all pitches, 2008-2010Is it worth it?  James's isolated power stands at .343 on fly balls, .245 on liners.  He collects many more hits on the liners, but they do less damage.  Given his very poor hitting on ground balls (.211 BA, .223 slugging), limiting his power by giving up more line drives appears to be a great tradeoff.